Snow Forts, Full Moons and the love of an Eight Year Old

Snow Forts, Full Moons and Eight Year Old Boys

Sometimes the greatest gifts come wrapped in white.This Christmas God wrapped up our area with a blanket of white stuff. He used snow, then ice, then more snow and some really cold temps to ‘force’ us to slow down the Christmas insanity and ‘force’ us to do family. What a great gift.

God sent us billions of snowflakes to form this wintry wrapping for free. What a treasure. I couldn’t invest the fortunes of a thousand lifetimes to buy this many snowflakes to blanket hundreds of square miles. To do what God does effortlessly is far out of my grasp and ability. I’m amazed that He loves us this much to provide exactly what we need – even when we don’t know it.

Christmas Eve we traveled back into our snow covered region so that my wife could sing at Crestwood Baptist Church’s Christmas Eve service. The roads in our subdivision were barely passable and our driveway, which goes downhill at a slight grade, was worse. So, I made it almost to the garage and that was where the party got stuck in this wrapping of white stuff.

I went to work with the snow shovels trying to set the van free so that we could get Julie out to the Church on time. But, that was not to be. A friend came and got her but she missed the service and I was left in the driveway with an eight year old, a snow shovel, and a full moon rising – perfect conditions for a snow fort to take shape!

I shoveled for a while until I learned that this particular blanket of snow and ice needed to be broken up more than shoveled up, so I grabbed a garden hoe from the garage and started ‘popping up’ huge chunks of snow and ice. Just the right size for blocks to build the walls of a snow fort. Just the right size for the imagination of an eight year old to take over.

Joshua and I have had a couple of great nites out in the snow working on the driveway and the snow fort and it’s been an incredible Christmas for me. Yeah, my back aches a bit but my heart is full of emotions about the gift of snow, of ‘stuckness’ and of eight year old wonder. I don’t suspect that a man gets too many chances in one lifetime to work on a snow fort with his son, so I’m chalking this up as one of the greatest gifts of my lifetime.

Isn’t it cool how God delivers to us exactly what we need in the most unusual ways. He knew that I needed this time with my son in the snow on this Christmas and He knew that it would take a van stuck in the snow-ice to give me time to really enjoy Christmas with my family.

My son observed that it was a good thing that he was helping me with the driveway and I was helping him with the snow fort. And I replied that he was helping me in another way – having a buddy to share the wonder of it all with. It’s like we had a moment of ‘buddyship’ where my little boy also became my friend. It was magic. It was rich. It was what I desired most with my son. It was Christmas.

So, here’s to God and His magnificent gifts of white stuff, full moons, eight year olds and snow forts. Enjoy life as God gives it to you. Suck the juice from every moment and take nothing for granted. Foster a deep sense of wonder at the odd ways that God gives us what we need.

Merry Christmas,
Jeff

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